1970 AMC Javelin Mark Donohue Edition

Brandon Redmon, 23; Whittier, California

1970 AMC Javelin Mark Donohue Edition from Hemmings Classic Car

Automotive hand-me-downs are a crapshoot that you can never really be sure about. After all, how can you have a say in a car that was built years before you were even a gleam in your parents' eyes? The attitude of gratitude is the right one to have, whether you've been handed a four-door straight-six with a family of mice nested in the rear seat cushion or a torquey, low-mileage V-8-powered luxury coupe--and most who appear in our Next Generation pages understand that they're lucky to have anything vintage at all.

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Still, the endless coulda-shoulda-woulda, if-I-had-a-time-machine games will kill your enthusiasm quick. Why didn't Grandpa get a convertible, or at least a coupe instead of a sedan? Why didn't he get a stick shift? Couldn't he afford even the base V-8? Did he really like that weird color?
But sometimes, fate's cruel hand lifts, brushing away the gathering storm clouds instead of pounding you into the earth with its clammy fist. Such is the case with Brandon Redmon of Whittier, California, and the Mark Donohue Signature Edition 1970 AMC Javelin that was bequeathed to him.
You may recall the Donohue Javelin as the celebratory homologation special for AMC's successful entries in SCCA Trans-Am racing, much as the Boss Mustangs were for Ford, or the AAR 'Cuda was for Plymouth. Just 2,500 were built. You may even recall that the Javelin SST-based Donohue featured a newly designed ducktail wing on the trunk, a functional Ram Air hood, floor shift, and an AMC 360-cu.in. V-8 sporting four-bolt mains for greater durability. Alas, there was no specific numerical code embedded in the VIN to let the world know whether a particular Javelin was a true Donohue edition: the only way to tell is with a paper trail. Brandon has that paper trail--and a history of the car since it was new.
"This Javelin has been in my family since it was purchased new by my grandparents at Ricker Motors in Whittier, California. My mother used to drive the car when she was in high school. It came originally with a 360-cu.in. AMC V-8 connected to a Borg-Warner T-10 three-speed automatic transmission. The car was repainted back in 1971 because some antifreeze was spilled on the hood and fenders, but it is the original color. The interior was reupholstered in 1990 with the correct vinyl; it may not be factory-original anymore, but how it now sits is how it would look from the factory."
It's not completely original, as Brandon readily relates: "In 2005, the crankshaft broke in the 360 engine." Was this an easy fix for Brandon, who is now a machinist at Egge Machine and Speed Shop in Santa Fe Springs, California? Perhaps, but he took it as an opportunity to upgrade the powertrain instead. "Now the car has a 401-cu.in. AMC V-8 installed, along with a Chrysler 727 TorqueFlite transmission packing a Hurst shift kit. After we rebuilt the rear differential multiple times, we decided to replace the stock rear with a stronger 9-inch Ford differential."
Here's another slice of kismet: Brandon told us, "I was doing some checking on the VIN data plate, and I discovered that the car was built on March 15, 1970--16 years to the day before I was born."
But don't let the family history lull you into thinking that this particular Mark Donohue-edition Javelin is pampered and disallowed from driving--far from it. In fact, it's driven weekly to shows around Southern California, and has become something of a fixture at the myriad local events that dot the SoCal landscape. "The Javelin gets driven just about every weekend to various car shows," Brandon says. "Usually I get out to five shows a month--four smaller shows, like the Donut Derelicts in Huntington Beach, and one bigger show. At most shows, it's the only AMC entered, and it manages to attract a lot of attention."
One drive, in particular, was a sort of homecoming: The Javelin was treated to some laps on a road course. "In 2008, my father and I took the Javelin up to Willow Springs road racing circuit for an open track day, and it did very well considering the technology of its time. Other cars on the track that day included C6 Corvette Z06s, a couple of Porsche 911s and some Japanese imports. We had little experience driving road courses, but it was able to hold its own. This car was the only Trans-Am-era car there--it felt like a throwback to the races of the late '60s and early '70s."
And, while no one will pretend that Brandon was turning in Mark Donohue-type lap times, the speed was enough that (even with a heady haze of unexpurgated exhilaration and adrenaline) he was able to get a far clearer sense of the capabilities of his machine--in the sort of milieu that Donohue, the man, had conquered some four decades previous.
Sounds to us like Grandpa chose pretty well...

This article originally appeared in the January, 2010 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.